Posted!

Join the Nation's Conversation

G-8 to N. Korea: Refrain from 'further provocative acts'

North Korea threat

North Korea, which has missiles capable of hitting U.S. territories in the Pacific and possibly mainland USA, has ordered its rocket and long-range artillery units to be combat ready after joint military drills by U.S. and South Korean forces. A look at the Koreas and the military presence and threat:

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korea delivered a fresh round of rhetoric Thursday with claims it had "powerful striking means" on standby for a launch, while Seoul and Washington speculated that the country is preparing to test a medium-range missile during upcoming national celebrations.

During a press conference at the G-8 summit, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said that if North Korea conducts another missile launch or nuclear test, the G-8 ministers have "committed ourselves" to take further "significant measures" — such as asking for more sanctions at the United Nations Security Council.

In a communique following a meeting in London, the G-8 foreign ministers said Pyongyang's "current aggressive rhetoric" will only isolate North Korea. They urged North Korea to refrain from "further provocative acts" and engage in credible talks on abandoning all existing nuclear programs.

"G-8 foreign ministers condemned in the strongest possible terms the continued development of its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," the communique stated.

North Korea's decisions to launch a long-range rocket in December and conduct an underground nuclear test in February "seriously undermine regional stability, jeopardize the prospects for lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula and threaten international peace and security," the communique said.

On the streets of Pyongyang, meanwhile, North Koreans celebrated the anniversary of leader Kim Jong Un's appointment to the country's top party post — one in a slew of titles collected a year ago in the months after father Kim Jong Il's death.

In the capital of neighboring South Korea, the country's point person on relations with the North, Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae, urged Pyongyang to cool down, engage in dialogue and reverse its decision to suspend operations of a joint industrial park just north of their shared border.

"We strongly urge North Korea not to exacerbate the crisis on the Korean peninsula," Ryoo said.

The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, a nonmilitary agency that deals with relations with South Korea, said its "striking means" have been "put on standby for a launch and the coordinates of targets put into the warheads." It didn't clarify further. The statement was the latest in a torrent of warlike threats seen outside Pyongyang as an effort to raise fears and pressure Seoul and Washington into changing their North Korea policy.

CLOSE

As neighboring nations kept a close eye on missile movements in North Korea, people in the country's capital began celebrating a series of April holidays, including the anniversary of their leader's appointment as head of the Worker's Party. (April
AP

Officials in Seoul and Washington say Pyongyang appears to be preparing to test-fire a medium-range missile designed to reach the U.S. territory of Guam in the Pacific Ocean.

Such a launch would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions prohibiting North Korea from nuclear and ballistic missile activity, and mark a major escalation in Pyongyang's standoff with neighboring nations and the U.S.

North Korea already has been punished in recent months for launching a long-range rocket in December and conducting an underground nuclear test in February.

Analysts do not believe North Korea will stage an attack similar to the one that started the Korean War in 1950. But there are concerns that the animosity could spark a skirmish that could escalate into a serious conflict.

"North Korea has been, with its bellicose rhetoric, with its actions … skating very close to a dangerous line," U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in Washington on Wednesday. "Their actions and their words have not helped defuse a combustible situation."

The missile that officials believe Pyongyang is readying has been dubbed the "Musudan" by foreign experts after the northeastern village where North Korea has a launch pad. The missile has a range of 2,180 miles and is designed to reach U.S. military installments in Guam and Japan, experts say.

Bracing for a launch that officials said could take place at any time, Seoul deployed three naval destroyers, an early warning surveillance aircraft and a land-based radar system, a Defense Ministry official said in Seoul, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with department rules. Japan deployed PAC-3 missile interceptors around Tokyo.

But officials in Seoul played down security fears, noting that no foreign government has evacuated its citizens from either Korean capital.

"North Korea has continuously issued provocative threats and made efforts to raise tension on the Korean peninsula … but the current situation is being managed safely and our and foreign governments have been calmly responding," Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young told reporters Thursday.

The war talk is seen as a way for North Korea to draw attention to the precariousness of the security situation on the Korean Peninsula and to boost the military credentials of young leader Kim Jong Un.

The Korean War ended in 1953 with a truce, not a peace treaty, and the U.S. and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations.

For weeks, the U.S. and South Korea have staged annual military drills meant to show the allies' military might. North Korea condemns the drills as rehearsal for an invasion.

Citing the tensions, North Korea on Monday pulled more than 50,000 workers from the Kaesong industrial park, which combines South Korean technology and know-how with cheap North Korean labor. It was the first time that production was stopped at the decade-old factory park, the only remaining symbol of economic cooperation between the Koreas.

South Korea's point man on North Korea, Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae, urged Pyongyang to stop heightening tensions and to discuss the restart of operations in Kaesong.

In Pyongyang, meanwhile, there was no sense of panic. Across the city, workers were rolling out sod and preparing the city for a series of April holidays.

North Korean students put on suits and traditional dresses to celebrate Kim Jong Un's appointment as first secretary of the Workers' Party a year ago.

A flower show and art performances are scheduled over the next few days in the lead-up to the nations' biggest holiday, the April 15 birthday of North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, father of the country's second leader, Kim Jong Il, and grandfather of the current leader.

Kim Jong Il elevated the military's role during his 17-year rule under a policy of "military first," and the government devotes a significant chunk of its annual budget to defense. Human rights groups say the massive spending on the military and on development of missile and nuclear technology comes at the expense of most of its 24 million people. Two-thirds face chronic food shortages, according to the World Food Program.

No military parade or mass events were expected over the coming week, but North Korea historically uses major holidays to show off its military power, and analysts say Pyongyang could well mark the occasion with a provocative missile launch in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions barring the North from nuclear and missile activity.

"However tense the situation is, we will mark the Day of the Sun in a significant way," Kim Kwang Chon, a Pyongyang citizen, told The Associated Press, referring to the April 15 birthday. "We will celebrate the Day of the Sun even if war breaks out tomorrow."

During last year's celebrations, North Korea failed in an attempt to send a satellite into space aboard a long-range rocket. The U.S. and its allies criticized the launch as a covert test of ballistic missile technology.

A subsequent test in December was successful, and that was followed by the country's third underground nuclear test on Feb. 12, possibly taking the regime closer to mastering the technology for mounting an atomic weapon on a missile.

A look at key dates in this nation's past, starting with its division from South Korea.

1948

1954

1960

1966

1972

1978

1984

1990

1996

2002

2008

2014

1948

Division

Korea officially divides into two nations. Kim Il Sung installed as leader of
North Korea.

Photo: Kim Il Sung attends the military parade celebrating the creation of the North Korean People's Army in February 1948. (Korean Central News Agency)

June 25, 1950

Korean War

North Korea launches a surprise attack on the South along the 38th Parallel,
established as a border after the end of World War II, setting off the Korean
War. Chinese troops enter the water in October, attacking U.S.-led forces that are invading North Korea.

Photo: Two U.S. 2nd Infantry Division soldiers use a screwdriver and bayonet tip as they probe for mines on the road from Changnyong to the Naktong River in South Korea on Sept. 10, 1950. (AP file photo)

July 27, 1953

War ends

After a seesaw conflict that leaves 178,000 dead, an armistice agreement is
signed, and fighting stops.

Photo: South Korea army soldiers patrol along the barbed-wire fence on March 6, 2013, near the border village of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War. (Lee Jin-man, AP)

Jan. 23, 1968

Ship captured

North Korea captures the USS Pueblo, a naval intelligence ship. The crew, minus
those killed, is released 11 months later.

The first of three combat campaigns between North and South Korea over disputed
western islands -- the others occur in 2002 and 2009 -- will leave several patrol
ships sunk and sailors killed on both sides.

Photo: A South Korean walks along an oyster field with a sea base for naval ships seen off Yeonpyeong Island in 2009 in disputed waters in the Yellow Sea, the scene of inter-Korean clashes. (AFP/Getty Images)

June 2000

Historic meeting

North Korea's Kim Jong Il meets with South Korean President Kim Dae Jung at a
summit in Pyongyang, paving the way for the reopening of border liaison offices.
The South also grants amnesty to thousands of North Korean prisoners.

Photo:?Kim Jong Il, right, and Kim Dae Jung raise their arms together before signing a joint declaration at the end of the second day of a three-day summit in Pyongyang on June 14, 2000. (AP file photo)

January 2002

Axis of evil

President George W. Bush labels North Korea as part of an "axis of evil" and an "outpost of tyranny."

Photo: Bush, flanked by Vice President Dick Cheney, left, and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, acknowledges applause in the House Chamber of the Capitol during his State of the Union Address on Jan. 29, 2002. (Luke Frazza, AP)

January 2003

Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty

North Korea announces it is withdrawing from the 1968 Nuclear Non-proliferation
Treaty, under which the country was barred from making nuclear weapons.

Photo: Kim Jong Il is seen during a visit to Russia in 2002. (AP file photo)

Photo: North Korean soldiers observe the South Korean side through binoculars at the truce village of Panmunjom in the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas on Nov. 1, 2006. (Lee Jin-man, AP)

November 2007

Prime ministers meet

The prime ministers of North and South Korea meet for the first time in 15
years.

Launch of Unha-3 rocket ends in an embarrassing failure, splintering into pieces
over the Yellow Sea soon after takeoff. Hours later, the country acknowledges that the satellite failed to enter orbit in an announcement on state TV.

Photo: A North Korean soldier stands guard in front of an Unha-3 rocket at Tangachai-ri space center on April 8, 2012. (Pedro Ugarte, AFP/Getty Images)

Dec. 12, 2012

Satellite launch

North Korea launches a long-range rocket and succeeds in its mission to place a satellite into orbit.

Photo: The launch of rocket Uhna-3, carrying the satellite Kwangmyongson-3, is monitored on a large screen at a control center on Dec. 12, 2012. (Korean Central News Agency via AFP/Getty Images)

Feb. 12, 2013

Miniature nuclear device detonated

North Korea says it has detonated a miniaturized nuclear device. If true, this
would be an advance, as North Korea needs to master the technology to make a
nuclear device small enough to mount on a missile.

North Korea announces it will scrap the armistice agreement that ended the
Korean War 60 years ago.

Photo: South Korean Army soldiers stand guard at the Unification Bridge near the border village of Panmunjom on March 21, 2013. (Ahn Young-joon, AP)

March 15, 2013

USA beefs up defense

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says the Pentagon will bolster missile defense in
the U.S. with the addition of 14 interception missiles in the face of a growing
threat from North Korea. The decision expands the system's ability to shoot down
long-range missiles in flight before they could reach U.S. territory.

Photo: Hagel speaks about the U.S. missile defense system during a press briefing at the Pentagon on March 15, 2013. (Win McNamee, Getty Images)

March 30, 2013

'State of war'

North Korea declares it has entered a "state of war" with South Korea in the latest string of threats that have raised tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Photo: North Korean army officers punch the air as they chant slogans during a rally in Pyongyang, North Korea, on March 29, 2013. (Jon Chol Jin, AP)